The Annunaki War

Reckoning

Enki was, for the first time in over 400 years, truly terrified. Anubis was the only being known to have defeated Enki in nearly a millenia. His only other known defeat had occured when Enki was still barely more than a child, at the age of 110. Ever since that time, he had been unstoppable; both brilliant and a master of close combat. With each world he enslaved, his power grew, the slaves' faith fueling his own energies, bolstering his confidence, pushing him ever closer to deification. But Anubis, the self-proclaimed guardian of the spirit realm, and the only Annunaki to reside there, had always been a potential threat to Enki's machinations, and now threatened to bring his house of cards crashing down.

As Anubis removed his dark grey cloak and hood, it began to glow faintly, then brighter and brighter. As soon as it hit the ground, it flashed with a briliant white light, then vaporized. Now he stood, wearing nothing but a loin cloth, in the door of the bridge of Enki's vessel. His skin, instead of being blue, was actually a ghostly white, and his pink eyes seared into Enki's soul. "This ends now!" he boomed, in a voice so deep it seemed to resonate throughout the cabin.

Enki, slowly regaining his composure, stood erect and walked directly towards Anubis, never breaking eye contact; stopping only a few inches from his face.  A smile slowly formed on his lips before he spoke. "This.... will never...end. What I have created - it's both beautiful and eternal. Nothing you can do to me will change that."

"I can kill you," Anubis scoffed. "I WILL kill you!"

"You won't." Enki declared. "You'd never make me a martyr of my own religion."

"Gods can't die," Anubis chuckled. "To die is to be mortal, and to be mortal means you are not a god."

"There are many forms of immortality. Look at Kessler IV. The slaves there worship Baal still, though we've not been there in nearly 20,000 of our years. Is he not immortal? Am I not?"

"You will be exposed as a fraud, and made to answer for your crimes!"

"By who? You?" Enki chuckled. "Who are you to pass judgement on me? You're no more a god than I."

"Nor do I claim to be."

"You've chosen to live among them, to defend them even. Why? They control the realm in which they, in which you, live. Surely they can defend themselves."

"It is not them I am defending, but their flock. I make sure that the natural cycle of life, death, and transistion is not disturbed. Not by you, or anyone."

"Well, you're doing a fine job of that, considering I was able to traverse over, capture a bunch of spirits, and traverse back, all without even seeing your face."

"I admit, you managed to surprise me that day," Anubis admitted. "Luckily, you've made a great many enemies during your time here. It was they who made your actions known to me. They have asked that I deal with you, once and for all; so that when they return they will be free of your villany."

"What?" Enki reeled in shock. "What do you mean, 'when they return'?"

"Foolish Enki," Anubis explained.  "Have you not wondered why they have put up no resistance; why everything seems too easy? Did you really believe yourself that much more powerful than them?"

"What has happened?" Enki demanded.

"They chose to leave, to escape the slow decay and eventual death of this planet. Then, they decided not to tell you. Your ship can't make it back to Nibiru with the fuel you have left. You, sir, are going to die here, whether it's by my hand or the hand of time. And..." Anubis chuckled to himself as he quoted Enki "... nothing you can do will change that."

"If that were true, you yourself would have died a long time ago," Enki reasoned. "You don't live in a thermomagnetic environment, either."

"I no longer live in the mortal realm at all. Rules of life and death do not exist for me, for anyone, in that place. Time itself ceases to pass."

"So, the answer is clear, then'" Enki mused. "To become truly immortal, I must take up residence in the plain of the spirits, as you have."

'It's not that simple, I'm afraid." Anubis retorted. "You cannot simply MOVE there. No mortal being can reside there for long without the gods' blessing."

"Yet, you have," Enki reasoned.

"I have the gods' blessing." Anubis answered. "I stand vigil over their realm; they grant me the gift of living outside of time. It is a contract - one that I must enforce."

Enki's lower right hand concealed a lethal dagger, which he now gripped tightly as he was preparing to use. "So be it," he declared, before lashing out to drive the dagger into Anubis' neck. To his surprise, the instant the blade made contact with his snow-white skin, Anubis himself simply dissolved into a flurry of individual spirits, which swirled and reformed behind Enki, so quickly that he was unable to defend against the headlock that Anubis now had him in.

"You fool," Anubis whispered in his ear. "You have truly learned nothing. Never has one claimed omnipotence with so little actual knowledge."

"Where are you taking me?" Enki choked as Anubis drug him into the earth-transport pod.

"To face your subjects, Yahwew." Anubis' voice carried a thick layer of sarcasm and indignation now. "They're going to see who you truly are, and hear of your schemes and terrible crimes. Then, I will kill you... right in front of them."

Still holding Enki in a headlock, Anubis backed into one of the escape pods, using his lower arms to configure the pod for a controlled crash landing in the Arabian peninsula. As the pod rocketed away, he whispered into Enki's ear, "The tyranny of Yahwew has come to an end!"